Cincinnati crime-fighter becomes local attraction

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Watch the streets of Cincinnati carefully: you may see a man clad in a mask and cape scouring the city in search of evil deeds and damsels in distress. Shadowhare, who (obviously) prefers to conceal his true identity has volunteered his services to the city’s citizens and civil servants … free of charge.

This is bigger than voting and jury duty combined.

This superhero is 21 years old – and clearly mature beyond his years. After all, who would take on such a daunting task? He leads a group called the “Allegiance of Heroes,” which includes Aclyptico in Pennsylvania, Wall Creeper in Colorado and Master Legend in Florida. “I’ve even teamed up with Mr. Extreme in California – San Diego – and we were trying to track down a rapist,” he says.

Shadowhare (and the Allegiance of Heroes) operates with “legal weapons,” such as handcuffs and pepper spray. When necessary, this crew conducts citizen’s arrests to bring justice to the community.

Here’s the shock: sometimes, Shadowhare and his fellow crime-fighters aren’t taken seriously by the folks in uniform. Imagine that! The Allegiance of Heroes, however, proceeds undeterred.

So, if a trip to Cincinnati is in your future, book your flights knowing that you have nothing to fear.

[Thanks, Dad]

Crime and punishment museum where the good guys win

by Jamie Rhein on

The National Museum of Crime and Punishment has nothing to do with the novel by the same name written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, but about one of the U.S.’s favorite past times, fighting criminals. In this museum that has just opened in Washington, D.C., according to this L.A. Times article by Sara Wire, it’s not the criminals that get the glory–Al Capone, move over, but the people who fight crime. No, no, no, not Batman or Superman or even Indiana Jones, but law enforcement officers and detectives–the good guys, the people who are sleuthing experts who save the day.

John Walsh, the man who hosts “America’s Most Wanted,” will broadcast the show from here once a month. Visitors to the museum will get a history lesson of crime and punishment in the United States from colonial times to present day. There are interactive features where folks get a true picture of what fighting crime is actually like–not the CSI version, but what really happens.

One of the messages throughout is that crime doesn’t pay. This is a museum to show off the good guys and down play the bad guys.

One of the exhibits that caught my attention is the car used for the movie Bonnie and Clyde. Even though Al Capone is not glorified here, a replica of his cell at Eastern State Penitentiary is. Both show the end of the life of crime, not the “fun” stuff of getting by with bank robberies that tend to get a movie audience to root for the get-a-way, at least for awhile.